Solidarity

A Palestinian delegation representing 15 grassroots, civil society organizations paid a visit yesterday (21 September) to the Venezuelan Ambassador to Palestine, Jonathan Velasco, to express solidarity with the people of Venezuela in the wake of mounting attacks by the American government on the government of President Hugo Chavez and progressive governments and movements throughout Latin America.

The seven person delegation, led by Adnan Ramadan, Coordinator of the Occupied Palestine and Syrian Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI), a coalition of grassroots organizations, and Sergio Yahni of the Alternative Information Center, a member of OPGAI, brought with it a letter of solidarity for President Chavez and the Venezuelan people.

“We have come to express our deep solidarity and friendship with the Venezuelan people and all the peoples of Latin America who are under attack from American imperialism, as we are in Palestine and throughout the Arab world,“ noted Ramadan in his opening remarks to Ambassador Velasco.

“We know how important solidarity is to our struggle for Palestinian freedom,” Yahni later added, “and the question is how to create tools for solidarity between and amongst southern states and peoples, instead of always looking for solidarity and assistance from the northern countries.”

Ambassador Velasco expressed great appreciation for the solidarity visit by the coalition of Palestinian civil society groups, noting the importance of a free Palestine for Venezuela and all the peoples of the world. Velasco stressed the significance of Palestinian resistance to Israel’s occupation as an essential means for change, adding that Palestine is one of the most important fronts against imperialism worldwide.

“What the impoverished people of the world most need is their freedom,” Velasco concluded, remarking on the revolutionary process occurring today in Venezuela and the revolutionary traditions in general of Latin America as making a tangible and positive contribution to this crucial goal.